Black Ice
by X6Herbius
Summary: This is the modified beginning of a storyline I had for a James Bond SourceMod. I started rewriting it on the train back from Somerset on Sunday and the introduction evolved into this. Hope it's enjoyable. :D


Briefing

"Good evening, 007."

"Good evening, M." Bond stood in front of the white, currently blank wall, opposite his superior. He was familiar with the process. The short initial formalities, after which the white wall would spring to life with its usual ultra-modern trimmings that were typical of MI6. Well, all that money might as well be used for something. The computer system would go through slide after slide; picture, followed by document, followed by video, followed by profile, with M, looking as much like the Queen of England as ever, giving the details of the world's latest security threat or stability compromisation. At the end there'd be a "Best of luck," which generally meant MI6 expected Bond back in once piece by the following Monday; or an "It's up to you now," which implied that there had been at least a couple of failures beforehand on this particular assignment; or even, God forbid, a "The safety of the world depends on you." He'd endured a fair few of these over the years and, luckily for The World, had come out of them OK, albeit with a couple of close shaves. Bond doubted he'd ever forget the episode concerning a high-powered laser and Auric Goldfinger's "expectations".

"I trust you're well?" Bond spoke with a time-tailored politeness towards MI6's administrator. Standard procedure once again.

"Yes, thank you, 007. Switzerland, unfortunately, is not. You may remember the Large Hadron Collider? It was in the news a couple of years ago."

"The one that supposedly had the power to destroy the world in a black hole?" Bond hoped the conversation wasn't going in the direction he feared. The white wall flickered predictably to life, showing a shot of a long tunnel brimming with electronics.

"Indeed. Fortunately, the situation in question isn't quite as severe." M wore a dry smile. "There has been a theft, it happened two days ago. This -", she indicated with her hand and the projection screen changed to show a large black and rugged industrial briefcase sporting an attractive hazard strip, "- is _Carbon-Encapsulated Ununoctium,_ or CE118, something the scientists at the Collider developed."

Bond smirked. "This is beginning to sound like a Dan Brown novel."

"If only it were. In reality there's no 'antimatter' or 'Illuminati', just a missing crystal with convenient military applications." M handed Bond a folder that had been lying on the table beside her. "If you fancy a bit of chemistry, the details are in here. To put it simply, the crystal in that briefcase is the only one of its kind in the world. It has a number of unusual properties, the most prominent of which is that light photons can be concentrated and accelerated through it to create a high-powered laser beam."

The projection screen came up with a couple of demonstrative pictures: some equipment focusing a light beam, some diagrams of the crystal structure, several melted or incinerated objects.

"Naturally, there's a host of people who would love to get their hands on this crystal. The military for one, competing scientists developing new technology, criminal organizations wanting some cash; I'm sure the Swiss government would pay millions to get the crystal back into the right hands.

"So far, we suspect that an insider was involved in the theft, someone who had access to the labs. Luckily for the other staff, the infiltrator wasn't as brutal as to rip out an eye in order to get through the retinal scanners. After the crystal left the facility, however, we have limited intelligence. For all we know, it could be out of the country by now. Nevertheless, we suspect that the original thief would not have had much desire to keep the crystal for themselves, rather to sell it on for a large amount of cash.

"We do have one eyewitness account: a pedestrian saw a black Jaguar leave the Collider facility at a high speed at around one o'clock in the morning. We have checked the registration with the police and the car was last seen on the outskirts of Geneva at an industrial power plant earlier today. Of course, we don't know how long it'll be there but we need it checked out and, if it turns out that it is the suspect with the crystal, returned to the Swiss government as soon as possible."

The projection screen, having displayed an aerial photo of the plant in question, shut off without a whisper. M turned to Bond.

"Your plane leaves London this evening, the details are in the file." She pointed to the folder Bond was holding. "Sorry to get you working under cover of darkness straight away but we need someone in Geneva ASAP. Find that crystal, escort it safely out of the city and we'll send someone to pick you up.

"Best of luck, 007."

Bond smiled knowingly.


End file.
